Brad Ivanchan, Chris Van Etten, Alex Minsky with the check donated by Michael Stokes Photography. Michael is coming out with a new book soon. Check his page for information. https://www.facebook.com/MichaelStokesPhotography

Recognize these guys? No? Really? OK, I didn’t either…until Saturday. That’s when I read a newspaper article about Josh Sweeney. It was so interesting I Googled him (since when is a made up word like Googled actually a verb?). Anyway, it seems that he is a member of the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey team. AND…wait for it…OK…ready?…he made the winning, in fact the only, goal for Team Semper Fi to win a gold medal at the Sochi Olympics.

Everyone on the Paralympic Sled Hockey team is either an amputee or has a medical condition rendering one or both legs immobile. Hence the name Paralympic. These three guys, however, are also ‘Wounded Warriors’. Paul, Josh, and Rico are all military veterans wounded in action overseas.

Josh Sweeney

Josh Sweeney, 27, from Glendale (Phoenix) Arizona, joined the Marines in 2005 right out of high school. In October 2009, while serving in Nowzad, Afghanistan he stepped on an IED (improvised explosive device) losing both his legs. Josh spent months in rehab at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He had been a hockey player in high school and after being discharged he tried a few adaptive sports, but he had never heard of sled hockey. Then he went to a sled hockey game with his family and inspiration struck.

He began playing and in 2011 he made the USA Hockey national team. In 2012 they won the International Paralympic Committee Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A in Hamar, Norway. Then the team took silver in the 2013 world championships. In December 2013, he was nominated to the 2014 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team by USA Hockey,

Rico Roman

Rico Roman, 33, is from Portland Oregon. He graduated high school in 2000 and joined the Army. In 2007, he lost his left leg to an IED during his third tour in Iraq. He was introduced to sled hockey by Operation Comfort, an organization dedicated to assisting injured U.S. service personnel while at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

From 2009-11, Rico was a member of the San Antonio Rampage Sled Hockey club, which is made up entirely of military veterans. He also played with the Dallas Stars sled team in 2012, helping the team to the 2012 USA Hockey Sled Classic Division A Championship.

Rico also participates in handcycling, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair football. Within a year of his amputation, Roman completed two bike marathons and rode 150 miles in a day to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. He currently lives in Wincrest, Texas with wife and two children.

Paul Schaus

Twenty five year old Marine Paul Schaus from Buffalo, NY, lost both his legs to a landmine in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on June 5, 2009 while on his second deployment. He was first airlifted to Landstuhl, Germany. He was eventually transferred state-side and spent a month at Bethesda Naval Medical Center before finally being moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Paul began playing Sled Hockey on the USA Warrior Hockey Team while still in rehab. He played two seasons (2010-2011) with the USA Warriors. Paul also played with the Buffalo Sabres Sled Hockey Team, and helped them win two straight USA Hockey Sled Classic Championship titles in 2011 and 2012. After a year on the U.S. National Development Sled Hockey Team from 2011-12, Paul made the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team for the 2012-13 season.

Paul has just started his second season on the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team

All three of these Warriors have received the Purple Heart for their service.

Paul Schaus Rico Roman Josh Sweeney

More Wounded Warriors

J. R. Martinez – Actor, Motivational speaker, Army veteran, burned over 34% of his body while serving in Iraq.

Chris Van Etten – Model, Marine veteran, wounded in Afghanistan

Alex Minsky – Model, Marine veteran, wounded in Afghanistan

Brad Ivanchan – Model, Marine veteran, wounded in Afghanistan

Colin Wayne – Model, Army veteran, wounded in Afghanistan

Thanks for your service. Thanks for your sacrifice.

Now, leave a comment. Surely you have one. Like this post. Follow my blog. Friend me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/katie.morningstar.71

I follow a number of Facebook pages, but my very favorite one is Michael Stokes Photography. I use a lot of his pictures in my posts.

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Michael Stokes is a Los Angeles based Photographer, originally from Berkley, California. Michael moved to LA in 1983 where he studied and swam on the Santa Monica College Swim team. Michael graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a BA in Fine Arts with an emphasis on film and photography. However, he left his artistic talents behind and began a career in real estate. In 2005 he left his very successful real estate career to focus on his interest in photography. Since his re-introduction to the art of photography Michael has been published in many magazines, clothing campaigns and a number of photographic anthologies. Despite the amount of time spent on photography Michael manages to compete as a United States Masters Swimmer. He swims 3,500 – 7,000 meters a day, 6 days a week. In 2008. Michael was ranked in the top 10 in the nation for the 1500 meter race.

Michael manages to capture the best of the male form in his work. He obviously likes sports…

OK. Did you all see Alex Minsky on The View a couple of days ago. You can see it at my Facebook page www.facebook.com/katie.morningstar.71 I checked YouTube, but I couldn’t find it. There are several other YouTube videos of Alex though, including interviews with Jay Leno and the Today Show. Go check them out, along with his Facebook page. www.facebook.com/AlexMinskyFanPage

U.S. Marine Cpl. Brad Ivanchan was born in 1988 and grew up with a sister and brother in the Phoenix/Glendale, Arizona area. He joined the Marines in 2008 and was deployed to both Iraq and the South Pacific as a machine gunner before deploying to Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, Brad stepped on a pressure plate, setting off an improvised explosive device that severed his right leg below the knee, his left leg above the knee, and damaged his left hand. Afterwards he underwent 11 surgeries at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego.

Brad in Iraq

Less than 3 months after his injury he was approached by Tim Medvets. Tim is an ex-biker and avid climber who runs a non-profit called The Heroes Project (www.theheroesproject.org). The Heroes Project takes severely wounded Vets and gives them a second chance at life through climbing some of the tallest peaks in the world. Brad signed on immediately and started training in the mountains surrounding L.A and San Diego. Within 9 months of losing his legs he became the first double amputee in the world to climb Mt.Aconcagua, South America’s tallest peak at 22,840 ft. in elevation. He says he went from the lowest point in his life to the highest point in his life in less than 9 months. And he feels he is living proof that no matter what life throws your way that you can forge on and overcome those obstacles. There are truly no bounds to what the human spirit can achieve!

This is Alex Minsky. A before picture. One of the few, the proud, the brave. A Marine. Then in Afghanistan in 2009 a road side bomb almost killed him. He was in a coma for over a month, and spent another year and a half in the hospital recuperating. He had burns over much of his body and lost his right leg. After discharge he turned to the bottle. But sick and tired of being sick and tired, he found his way into a gym…and a new life.

After a lot of workouts and a lot of ink, he was approached by someone asking if he had ever modeled. Alex thought it was a gay guy hitting on him. No really…that’s what he said in the interview ( www.queerty.com/10-things-to-know-about-model-alex-minsky-20130403 ). But photographer Tom Cullis thought Alex had “a movie star face with wild ink and sweat”, and convinced Alex to model for him.

This is Alex Minsky now…a fitness and underwear model.

I think it is so cute that he has a tattoo on the sock that covers his prosthetic foot. But what’s with that tattoo on his lower belly that says DON”T LAUGH. Of course I haven’t actually seen what’s below that tattoo, but…

somehow, I’m thinking it isn’t anything to laugh at.

Alex loves avocados, plays the guitar, and works out 4 hours a day to keep that body. He also created quite a controversy when photographer Michael Stokes posted this picture on Facebook…

Stokes was notified that it contained nudity or obscenity. Facebook removed it, and banned him for 3 days. In a statement of support over 4,000 Facebook fans reposted the picture. Glad to say that Michael Stokes ( www.facebook.com/MichaelStokesPhotography ) and Alex Minsky are both back on Facebook.

Alex is on Facebook, instagram, twitter, and can be seen at Model Mayhem. And guess what? He even looks good with his clothes on.

Who woulda thought…?

Christopher Van Etten and his bomb dog Harley, who is now his service dog.

Christopher Van Etten is a double amputee, injured in Afghanistan when two IED’s exploded in June 2012. Like Alex Minsky he has come back full stride. In October he hand cycled the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC and now he’s into…

I knew that Facebook censored certain pictures and posts, but I never realized how involved it actually was. One of the sites I follow (www.facebook.com/MichaelStokesPhotography ) posted this picture of Alex Minsky, a Marine war veteran turned fitness model. Now I think this is a great picture. But then I’m just sitting here drooling and not really able to think all that well at the moment. But, someone complained and Michael Stokes was banned from Facebook for three days. In response over 4,000 people/sites reposted the picture. (PS – he’s not really naked, he is holding an athletic cup over his…uh, you know)

Then Stokes posted this picture.

Again, someone reported it for containing nudity or pornography. Really? It wasn’t removed by Facebook, but they sent Stokes a notice that it had been reported. He posted that notice on his Facebook page and Facebook responded to that by banning him for 30 days.

Because of the outrage from his fan base, the ban was rescinded a few days later.

Now, you can go to the following sites and see all kinds of hunkalicious, hunkadorable, delectablelicious guys. The original site www.facebook.com/OfficialFSOS (that stands for Fifty Shades of Sexy) is currently on suspension for a post somebody didn’t like. But the spinoff sites are up and running.

Apparently these sites get all kinds of reports for nudity, pornography, and just plain being offensive. They are all sites that feature good looking men…and not just professional models. No, there’s military, firemen, law enforcement, cowboys, bikers. Basically any male eye candy. But if you don’t like it…don’t look at it. Let me put that another way. DON’T LOOK AT IT IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT.

Now then, look at these pictures closely. OK, not that closely. The pictures of the male models were banned from Facebook, but the pictures of the female models were not. How come?

I find the picture of that female derriere highly disturbing…and offensive…and just plain disgusting. It’s not even artistically attractive. But that’s just my opinion. And the female below…just barely short of pornographic. Double standard I say. Again just my opinion.

In this blog the author, apparently someone employed by Facebook to review complaints, talks about all the complaints and how they are handled. Facebook boasts 1.5 billion users total. They actually have 1.2 billion active users who log in nearly every day. That’s 1,200,000,000 – one billion, two hundred million – every day. I’m surprised the whole system doesn’t crash every few minutes. And out of all those users, they get 250,000 (yes that’s two hundred fifty thousand) complaints every hour. Every hour… that’s six million complaints every day…every day. And Facebook employs over 100,000 people, mostly foreign workers, to sift through those complaints. At least 80% of the complaints are from people who just didn’t like something, i.e. they were “offended.” Read some of the typical reports below: